


Cantera: A Foundation Story-Part 5

by Zurrunba



Series: Cantera [5]
Category: Foundation - Isaac Asimov
Genre: Alternate Universe - SCP Foundation, Cantera, Fillian Empire, Galactic Empire, Gen, M/M, Science Fiction, galaxy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-09
Updated: 2020-03-09
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:55:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23075104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zurrunba/pseuds/Zurrunba
Summary: The Galactic Empire has fallen, with kings, tyrants, and other rulers scrambling to seize power in systems across the galaxy. One such ruler is the Tyrant of Fillia, who thirty years before had crushed a rebellion from the planet Cantera, leaving desolation in its wake. Now the people of Cantera just wish to get on with their lives, but then from somewhere the tyrant gets wind that perhaps things weren't as calm and docile on that planet as the King of Cantera portrayed.Hiero's people finally captured the spy responsible for informing the tyrant of happenings on Cantera. Unfortunately a great deal of damage was done by the wife of the late Counselor Iar before she could be stopped. Cleaning this up might be impossible, but the Canteran leaders knew they had to try. To slow things down the king took a drastic step against a base in a nearby system, hoping to slow down the tyrant's encroachments, but it could possibly be the catalyst to bring the ruler down on their heads.
Series: Cantera [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1605262
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	Cantera: A Foundation Story-Part 5

“Your Grace, we’ve rounded up five of the spies,” Counselor Grij said, “but I fear several of them caught onto us before we could get to them.”

King Hiero of Cantera stared at the holoscreen projecting the image of flying debris circling what remained of a space station in the neighboring system of Rhea Alta. A system with no habitable planets, but had an old mining station orbiting a satellite of one of the system’s gas giants. It dated back to the days of the Galactic Empire now centuries gone. These old relics were located across the galaxy in many places; sites long forgotten and abandoned. The derelict he viewed had been one of those stations taken over by the Fillian tyrant’s people in order to keep an eye on an untrustworthy vassal, Cantera.

“Was Eileen able to tell you how many of these spies might still be on the planet?” asked Hiero, Cantera’s king.

“Twelve, according to her,” said Grij.

“And she’s certain that none of them had anything to do with the sabotage in the factories?” asked Oris, Cantera’s counselor in charge of manufacturing and a few other things.

“She says she took note of those who came in and out so that she could identify them later, if necessary,” said Grij.

Yes, she kept track of those she’d allowed to sneak onto the planet under her husband’s nose. She insisted that neither her late husband Counselor Iar nor any other member of her family had been involved with this intrigue, but under the circumstances they couldn’t take her word for it. Every member of her family was being discretely investigated. That included her son Lyam Iar who was a young officer on Station One. On that station some murders were happening, but thankfully he was easily cleared. The counselor Gale Iar had been a good friend of Hiero’s and the last thing he wanted to find out was that besides his wife sneaking information and people on and off the planet he had a son killing people on one of the stations.

“We’ll have to make sure that she’s in a secret location where we can squeeze her for more information, if she has any,” Grij said. “And keep an eye out to make sure that none of her ‘tourists’ try to find and free her, or kill her.”

The king nodded, still trying to fathom the notion of Eileen’s treachery. All for the sake of gambling debts she’d been deep into without telling anyone. The book keeper would need to be confronted soon in that regard. Nobody trusted them, and if that book keeper could cause this to happen imagine what other damage could be done.

The hollo image of the smashed up imperial station continued to rise up from the table top. The group had pulled it up soon after starting the meeting. What happened there had to be addressed, but nobody wanted to start. They certainly had a lot of other things to discuss besides the first act of war that Cantera had done against the Fillian tyrant’s navy, though knowledge of it wouldn’t reach him for another week if their calculations were correct.

Pointing to the screen, the king finally asked, “What’s the situation in Rhea Alta?”

“The station has been neutralized. We made sure that there could be no communication between this base and other systems. We made sure that there were no other ships in the area before striking. After the small fleet of theirs was destroyed we made sure that every living thing on board was taken out as well. It appears that they only had military soldiers of the tyrant’s personal guard. The number of soldiers on that base were roughly one hundred.”

“How long would you say this base had been there orbiting the gas giant satellite?”

“Our best guess was that it was some kind of mining station dating back about six hundred years ago. After the collapse of the empire the warlords, kings, princes, and whatever other leaders came out of it were fighting over what they could get. This station around Rhea Alta was abandoned soon after the Great Fall of Trantor. There seemed to be too many habitable systems to concern themselves with to be worried about this one in an inconvenient location for the leaders at the time. As far as I can tell it’s been abandoned for at least two hundred years.”

“And what of the Fillian presence here?”

“That can’t be more than about five to ten years they’d been rebuilding it. They clearly had a ways to go before it could function as the military base they were constructing.”

This base at Rhea Alta would’ve been devastating to Cantera if it had been completed. Hiero knew that it had been risky to send six of his secret battle cruisers to destroy the station, but he had to be sure that whatever the tyrant was thinking of doing there was stopped in its tracks. So long as they left no trace behind the overlords of the Fillian Empire couldn’t know for certain who the enemy was. Proof may not matter to the tyrant in the end. Thanks to Eileen suspicion had been growing for years.

“How is your investigation going, Oris?” the king asked as he turned to his counselor involved with the planet’s manufacturing. “Anything new to report?”

“Just that we caught two saboteurs in our factory at FC10 in Sector 5,” Oris replied. “From what we’ve heard from Eileen and others we’ve captured they must be among those that she allowed through security on the planet. We managed to get one of them to admit that there were originally twenty of them who’d been let loose in Sector 5 to cause trouble. Five of those had left the planet a month ago and three of them were killed in a fire fight when they tried to sneak into another one of the factories. I can’t tell you for sure what information the five gleaned before leaving Cantera, but the others are likely looking for ways off the planet to get their information to their bosses.”

“Since she let them in, they’re likely getting their orders from the tyrant himself?” the king asked with some concern.

“Strangely, not everyone Eileen allowed in answers directly to the tyrant. It looks like a few of them managed to catch a ride to do their own things. The one who spoke claimed that he was actually part of a faction determined to get rid of Tyrant Yth. Whether his group planned to get rid of the tyranny or just wanted to replace him with one of their friends I couldn’t get out of him.” 

Someone wanting to get rid of the tyrant? It made sense that there were always groups out there wanting to get rid of one leader or another. No ruler is ever universally loved. But this person had managed to sneak through one of the tyrant’s own secret pathways. Could he make use of this group to free Cantera? Not directly, as any groups in the Fillian Empire wanting to seize power wouldn’t likely smile on the idea of part of that empire breaking off.

“Well, I’ll need both of you to keep your eye out for those spies. With Eileen removed from the equation and the base at Rhea Alta destroyed, nobody will be departing from that path. Other avenues likely exist, so don’t assume they’re trapped here indefinitely.

“In the meantime I have to brief the new counselor over agriculture. He’ll be at our next meeting. We need to make sure our production isn’t harmed with Iar’s absence.”

He wasn’t going to tell them that they were continue to do the work of interstellar trade outside the empire that had once been Iar’s province. The right person had to be put in charge of that, even if he had to create a separate counselor to do the job in Oris and Grij couldn’t handle it. Well, Oris, anyway. Likely Grij would have far too much on his plate to deal with that as well.  
______________________________________

Blaster fire rang out across the halls of Station One as General Shore’s guards thrust their charge into a nearby hallway. This had been a surprise attack that Shore felt foolish that he hadn’t been watching for. There had already been two attempts on his life, one of which came close to succeeding. At least his security guards had been paying attention.

After three minutes of exchange there was silence. Then the sound of boots and yelling. The general slowly looked around the corner at the three bodies that lay on the floor. One of them was a guardsman of the base who’d been taken down by the two rebels that lay dead nearby. They were dressed in guard uniforms, but the uniforms didn’t have any ranking marks. That was different from the fake rankings on the Fillian spy captured two weeks before. He didn’t recognize either of them, but there were thousands stationed here; military and civilian. 

Then he came upon another person on the ground. This one was wearing an insignia with the rank of sergeant: and it was a rank that he actually held. Sergeant Uys sat there with his right leg in a makeshift splint, clearly in pain. 

“Take him to the cells,” the general ordered. They were going to get to the bottom of this. “I will deal with him personally.” Pointing to the two unmarked corpses he said, “In the meantime see if you can figure out who these fake soldiers are and make sure our Fillian friend in the brig sees you carrying them by.”  
Everyone rushed to do what they were told.  
_____________________________________

“We’ve heard nothing from Rhea Alta for three weeks,” said the tyrant to one of his generals. Pacing back and forth in one of the tyrant’s conferences rooms Yth wanted to throw something at these men who couldn’t seem to make anything work the way it should. All those present remained silent. There was nothing really to say that would defuse the tyrant’s anger. The general did his best to stay composed, but considering what happened to the last general who was on the receiving end of one of these rants one never knew what could happen.

“Sir, we have dispatched people to investigate. From our best estimates they should be at that system in three days. They have orders to use direct communication with us once something is known.”

“That’s not good enough!” the tyrant screamed. At this point everyone knew that the ruler just wanted to rant. It was best to let it run its course. Soon enough he’d be throwing orders around before storming off to yell at someone else. It took about ten minutes this time. Not bad. The tyrant had been known to go off anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour. After his departure the others remained there staring at each other for about ten more minutes, to make sure he wasn’t coming back, before leaving the room to get back to their usual work.

Of the five generals, six scribes, four technicians, and twenty administrators present, one of each group got together in a back office not likely to be disturbed for a while. It really belonged to nobody for several years and nobody felt a need for it, except for four men seeing how they can take advantage of the new circumstances.

“So what do you think of this new turn of events?” the general asked.

“Logic would lead one to think Cantera was involved,” said the administrator. “But how could they do that with the resources they have access to? They’re still recovering from what we did to them thirty years ago.”

“Who else could have done it, then?” asked the scribe asked.

“That should be more deeply looked into before we make our next move,” said the technician. “Our people will be in place to strike the tyrant down so long as you’re ready to take the reins, general.”

“I’m ready,” the general replied. “We just have to make sure that no uncertainties derail us. Those people talking about bringing together some legendary republic of freedom have to be watched for. We know that there’s at least one group scheming for this republic to take place. If a head or two of theirs should roll I believe that would put an end to them.” 

Each member of the group nodded their agreement. “Unfortunately the only member of their group we’ve been able to identify killed herself when we were closing in,” said the administrator. “We snatched up every member of her family and had them dealt with, but we weren’t able to really learn anything.”

“First we need to find out what happened at Rhea Alta,” said the general. “Two of our own were there monitoring happenings at Cantera. To my knowledge we still have someone on Cantera itself. One of our goals should be to connect with him. That woman on Cantera needs another squeeze, and we should be back in business.”

The group shortly split up and went their separate ways. They made sure to go off in different directions so that they wouldn’t be known to be associates outside of the tyrant’s council. What they didn’t catch was a technician who happened to be in one of the nearby hallways just as they exited the room. That technician quickly made himself scarce before anyone could spot him.  
__________________________________________

The tyrant’s message, when it came, left no doubt in the mind of the king just what he thought of current events in the Canteran sphere of his empire. Regardless of what shenanigans were or weren’t going on. The damage done by Eileen was coming to the fore. She claimed she’d only given one or two tidbits, not information about the actual planned separation; but that didn’t matter, for the tyrant was paranoid as it was, and he didn’t need a lot of facts to act on, just suspicion. 

The tyrant was demanding from Cantara all her warships in anticipation with a coming war with Yllul. He only desired a minimal crew from the king’s shipmen. The Tyrant planned to have the ships controlled by his own people. In other words, the planet was to remain defenseless and at the mercy of the Fillian rulers. The theory being pushed by them was that they would personally take charge to protect the Canteran side of the empire. Indirectly it was a response to what happened at the ‘secret base’ at Rhea Alta.

“Certainly we aren’t surrendering our ships to the tyrant, your Grace?” asked Grij.

“I’ll have to think about what other options we have,” Hiero replied. “As far as he knows we have eleven warships for our defense. I could see if I can whittle his demands down some. That’ll be difficult, but we do need to make him think those are all we have. The other ten ships that we sent to Rhea Alta he doesn’t know of, to the best of my knowledge. We have six other ships almost built that he shouldn’t know of either. Regardless, I don’t want the tyrant to have any of them.”

“And Yllul? What are your plans about them?”

“The rulers of Yllul aren’t any better than the tyrants we have now,” the king replied. “If push comes to shove we’ll accept the devil we know over the monster across the sector. If Yllul attacks we’ll join against them.

“Enough of that for now,” the king said before Grij could interrupt him. “It’s been four days. What have our scouts discovered about the Tartan?”

The Tartan was their ship that had disappeared on a trading mission to a distant planet named Gondor. The Tartan had other secret orders as well which concerned the king. So when the ship vanished he wondered if that mission had something to do with it. Now here it appeared orbiting the fifth planet of the Rhea Alta System. In fact, it was the search for this ship that had brought the existence of the secret Fillian base to the king’s notice.

A grimace crossed the counselor’s face. “We’ve just barely been able to get anyone onboard to investigate. It required both our scout ships attaching grapples to it to pull it out of its orbit into a safer spot. Then there was a period of time when they made sure that nothing around the ship was harmful to anyone entering.”

“But they got in.”

“Yes, your Grace.”

“And what did they find?” the king asked with irritation clearly in his voice.

“Ten dead bodies and two in comas,” Grij replied. “There were originally ten crewmen on this ship. We’ve identified the ten crewmen. Eight of them are dead and the other two are in comas. The other two we haven’t identified yet. What we know about the other two is that they were dressed in civilian Gondoran attire of a somewhat upper-class standing.  
They weren’t wearing any of the add-ons to the collars and sleeves on their jackets that would put them at the highest station. Four of the trader crew were shot with blasters, two appear to have suffocated, and the other two were decapitated by something. The two ‘extras’ seemed to have been bashed in the head several times until they were dead. The two surviving crew were hit in the head and were likely left for dead. Exactly who did what to who, though, we haven’t figured out.”

A strange combination of demise. Some kind of fight had taken place, but what?

“Were they all found in the same room?”

“No. The captain and his assistant were found in the command center, two of those shot by blaster were found in one of the main corridors, the others were all found near the main storage area in a large room that was used for eating.”

“Can we determine how the ship got to where we found it?”

“It looks like the coordinates for that planet accidentally got put there when someone set the computer to do a jump four days later, but got interrupted.”

“Can you tell which coordinates they meant to put in?”

“Not yet, but a check through the logs should tell us something.”

It better. This was turning into a mess all its own. If not for his relationship with the comatose captain he might let this oddity be thoroughly looked into before digging into the details. Something about this told him that there was some kind of threat resonating from the area of Gondor.

The counselor departed and the king was left alone. His two body guards remained outside the room as he contemplated what everything meant. Without much difficulty he could buy a couple weeks with negotiating. Eventually the tyrant would make one concession, but if one pushed further he would demand more than he did before. The trick was sitting on the concession to give it some thought and then slowly go toward giving the tyrant what he wants. With luck by the time it came around to actually following the order things would have changed so that another delay could be done. Luck.

Rising from his chair he reached down into his pocket to make sure his blaster was there. Best to be prepared. His current guard had made extra precautions this time, first by deleting the access code for the late Counselor Iar’s credentials. The enemy weren’t likely to try that twice, but it was best not to take chances.

He made it to his room unmolested (which really shouldn’t have been on his mind, but under the circumstances there seemed to be strange things always happening). As he started removing his royal regula he glanced over at his message board and noted that there were two messages. Apparently one of them was left in the early afternoon. That was strange since anyone who would get through this line should know he was never there in the afternoon. The other message was left five minutes before he walked through the door. 

Curious, he walked over and glanced at the screen. The code indicated that it was from Station One. A moment later he pushed the button. It was from General Shore, and he wished to speak with the king about happenings on the station. While Hiero did want to know what was going on there he needed to rest. He’d been working on pure adrenaline for a while. Then the next thing he heard stopped him in his tracks. Another assassination attempt that failed and another person captured, but this person wasn’t a stranger. It was an officer in the Canteran military. The general had asked the king if he could speak with him at the earliest possible convenience. The king immediately called him back.  
“Yes, your Grace,” the general said after the king verified what the message had said. “His name is Sergeant Uys. He’s one of the weapon’s officers in charge of our stock piles. Apparently he thought he could sneak up on us and take me down. Didn’t turn out that way.” The last part the general said with a smirk on his face.

“Have you gotten him to tell you anything?” the king asked.

“Yes, as a matter of fact. This guy thought he was tougher than he really was. He seems to be working for a group determined to overthrow the tyrant and put one of their own in his place.”

“And how does messing things up on Station One help their cause?”

“From what Uys says they’re trying to keep Cantera from learning about some of the systems they are using to gather secret forces to be ready to seize control of various points in the empire after Ysh is dead. If Cantera is made aware of these places we could be better prepared to stop their forces from taking control of this part of the empire.”

The king nodded. In a strange way that could make some sense. Word of these bases could slip from Cantera to the Fillian home world and make the tyrant aware of things so that he could prepare, or make a first strike. 

“Are these people aware of Yllul and its likely attack on the Fillian Empire?”

“Uys doesn’t seem to have much knowledge as to what the leaders of his group might do in this situation. He’s just loyal to their cause. My guess is that they planned to make some deal with Yllul.”

“What about others in this plot?”

“We’ve rounded up six others who are in custody. I don’t believe there are any others in that group present. Except for one they are all imposters from Fillia snuck in with Uys’s help. The other was a low level technician they managed to cajole to their side.”

“Very well. Hold onto them while I decide what I want to do. What of our other guest?”

The general smiled. “He is a little less forthcoming, but I did determine he was from the planet Rhyon a couple systems from Fillia and he’s part of another group against the tyrant. Apparently he had nothing to do with the murders. He was just caught trying to sneak information out of our databases to get back to his superiors. It looks like he’s part of Fillian Intelligence. A not so faithful servant to the tyrant.”

The king nodded. At least some things were starting to fall into place. Station One now looked to be secure. Any other conspirators would likely be hiding underground or looking for a way off the base. So far the other stations looked fine.

An idea suddenly came to him. The tyrant’s spies on the planet were looking for ways off to report to their master. Depending on what they knew already, it was possible the king could slip some information that could be controlled. That way the tyrant’s suspicions could be directed somewhere else. At least for a time. Cantera’s ships had to be protected. Only if Yllul invaded would he feel that they should be accessible to the tyrant. Immediately he began typing into the console and began the arrangements for his plan to take effect.  
_________________________________________

Vernu had been hiding in the Iron Fist tavern for the past week. Ever since contact with Eileen Iar had been severed, he’d been considering his options. Besides the connection with Eileen Iar there were three other ways in which he was given to leave the planet. One of them was compromised the day following Eileen’s silence. That meant that she had been discovered and must’ve divulged what she knew. To his knowledge she wouldn’t know about the other two. Which of those he should use was the question, or maybe discover a new one that authorities wouldn’t suspect. He was on his way to one of these connections when he got a message from one of his sources about some important information he could be interested in.

That gave him pause. It was dangerous to remain with his identity possibly being revealed by the former counselor’s wife. She had met three times over the past five years. She had certainly encountered dozens of spies besides him, but who knew if she had been keeping some kind of record or maybe she had a really good memory. It had been five days. Would one more day hurt? Finally his curiosity overcame him and he headed for what locals called the Gunboat Marketplace (for in the past a lot of violent intimidation was a regular part of some forms of trade there. Theoretically that didn’t exist anymore). He came to the booth where his contact worked as a fruit salesman and the information changed hands with the passing of the usual credits. Vernu glanced at the information and his eyebrows rose. Swiftly he made his way to a designated public park and connected a pad to the local system. 

The information he was given dealt with how the king was dealing with a captured conspirator trying to enlist aid from the Canteran government to overthrow the tyrant. The king had apparently jumped on the members of this conspiracy that he could find, including some who’d shown up on one of the planet’s orbital stations. The captured spy also gave a story about traitors among the tyrant’s guard had tried to take over one of his empire’s bases in Rhea Alta to use against him, but loyalists destroyed the base rather than allow it to fall into rebel hands. This information needed to be sent back home.

Shortly after Vernu had gone over the information and compared it with some other sources a transport came by the park where he was standing, and he climbed aboard. In three hours he would be on a trading vessel heading for the almost undeveloped planet Vishnusar before swooping off to Fillia.  
______________________________________________

When they found her it was purely by accident. Everyone would like to say that they would’ve found her eventually since they were scouring the entirety of the Tartan to be sure they didn’t miss anything. They had assumed that everyone onboard that ship was dead, for there was no sign of life, but then someone had accidentally bumped into one of the panels in an odd way in one of the corridors, and a passageway down into the interior of the ship appeared. It wasn’t large, but it was large enough for a few people to hide if they wished to.

The woman was dressed in a trader’s uniform, for in the Fillian Empire all traders were required to have a special kind of attire with the symbol of the trading group they were part of on the shoulders. She was in her early thirties if they hadn’t missed their guess and had a bandage on her right should apparently covering up a deep gash. She was unconscious, or asleep, when they found her, but after pulling her out of the room she slowly stirred. It would be another hour before they could manage to get her awake.

She looked up at the Canteran soldiers and jumped to her feet, or at least attempted to. After a couple clumsy steps she fell back on the floor. When the scout crewmen came in closer she saw the extra insignia of Cantera on their uniforms, and she calmed down. When she was brought on board one of the scout ships to rest the captain thought there was something familiar about her. That was strange since the only traders he really knew just did business in other parts of the Fillian Empire. 

Then it came to him. He made sure that he and the woman were alone before addressing her.

“Moira, what are you doing on that ship?”

“Traveling, obviously, Jeron; sorry, Captain Zurx,” she replied. “I am part owner of the Tarton, after all.”

“Yes, a part owner of many ships. A part owner nobody has seen or heard from in over two years.”

“It’s not easy for someone of my profile to go under, so I had to make several arrangements.”

“And why were those arrangements made? A lot of people have wondered where you’d gone. There were suspicions that someone at court had you done in.”

Smiling, Moira replied, “That’s not too far from the truth, at least where my most recent voyage is concerned. I need this message sent to Hiero right away.” Saying this she handed the captain a small computer chip. 

Zurx looked at the chip she gave him. It looked like a normal kind of computer chip, though clearly it had important data on it or she wouldn’t have it on her.

“Why don’t you just take it to the king yourself?”

Staring Zurx in the eye she replied, “Hiero and I have not been on the best terms before my timely disappearance. And there’s not much I can personally add that isn’t on that chip.”

“What’s in it, then, if I’m allowed to ask.”

“A plot to kill the king.”

“There have been a few attempts already in the last three weeks. Are you sure it isn’t one of those?”

“Not unless they’ve been traced back to the king’s nephew; or more specifically his wife.”

“You’re saying that the daughter of Counselor Iar is involved with a plot to kill the king?”

“Yes, and it involves the intervention of the rulers of Yllul. It took me this long just to get all the details out of there.”

Zurx glanced at the chip in his hand and then down at the woman who at one time had been the wife of King Hiero. A woman who’d vanished soon after the separation and was now warning threats from within the royal family and Yllul. With so many things being uncovered about people who everyone thought to be trustworthy, what should he take of a message from the former Queen of Cantera who’d abandoned her husband? Of course it wasn’t up to him. Counselor Grij would be informed; and then the king.

Here ends Part 5 of Cantera: A Foundation Story


End file.
